For many kids, entering high school means many things including getting a drivers license. After receiving their license however, most kids stop there and enjoy driving a car on their own. For senior Jacob Bowen, receiving a driver’s license was not his last stop. He continued on to attain his own motorcycle license as well.

Bowen has been riding motorcycles since he was three years old. Beside going to school and being a normal teenager, riding motorcycles is something Bowen has been doing his whole life. Of course, he hasn’t been riding them by himself. Up until he was in eighth grade, Bowen rode on the back seat of his father.

“At that age [three years old], I wasn’t really old enough to make my own decisions but my dad had a motorcycle when he was in high school and college so he grew up around them, too,” Bowen said. “He would call around places to make sure it was legal and then he would put me on the back and told me not to move around as much.”

The motorcycle rides consisted of going on fun runs where they would drive around Nebraska and not have a specific destination or visiting different motorcycle stops to take breaks, of course with their helmets on. Doing these adventures would consume almost the whole entire day. Bowen and his dad got to experience many different places and Bowen got to see a lot of Nebraska’s different environments. These experiences made Bowen love motorcycling and it made him want to pursue it, just like his dad did.

Bowen’s dad has been riding motorcycles since he was a teenager and, like father like son, Bowen planned on doing the same thing. This past July, Bowen got his motorcycle license in addition to his regular driver’s license. Unlike the regular driver’s license, in Nebraska, a person has to be 17 years old in order to attempt to get a motorcycle license.

In order to receive a motorcycle license, a person has to take riding courses. Riding courses consist of teaching someone how to start a motorcycle, how to stand up in one and how to ride one. If the course is passed, they then give that person a card they take to the DMV where the Motorcycle Safety Foundation will approve it. Once the person passes the course and the test has been taken, that person passes the DMV course. The program is similar to Driver’s Education, except the instructor is not on the motorcycle with the person.

In addition to riding on the back of a motorcycle, Bowen, although he has never built any motorcycles, has helped his dad fix or add cool features like fixing the handle bars to make them wider on the bike. This upcoming summer, Bowen also hopes to get his own motorcycle that he can drive around instead of using his dad’s.

“My mom is not super happy about me getting my own motorcycle, but my dad is more accepting of it because he got one when he was about my age, too,” Bowen said.

Bowen looks forward to having a bike that he can call his own and he hopes that he can keep pursuing his love for riding motorcycles as he gets older.